This week we focused on the validity of Global Warming and what we could do about it if it were a confirmed fact. Our discussion went to many aspects of the issue of global warming, such as its economic, political, environmental, and scientific aspects. But though we went into pretty specific detail about all these aspects, it still leads me to wonder whether we could, as a society, do anything about the issue if we were to find out if it is valid.
Of course, as people, there are times when we can be passionate about things that mean a lot to us, and with that passion we have been able to do many things, such as land men on the moon and things like that. Yet these things are small and require much less people to help in the process of achieving them than a feat such as trying to solve Global Warming would. If we confirmed everything that we believe contributes to Global Warming, people would have a HUGE list of what they had to stop themselves from doing. This list would include many things that people wouldn't want to fully buy into, such as turning off and unplugging every single thing in your home that you aren't using, use an electric or hybrid car instead of a mainly gasoline powered car, and buy environmentally friendly modes of energy production.
Now, this list sounds very nice and ideal, but we don't live in a Utopia where everything we do works out nice and harmoniously. Take, for instance, using more environmentally friendly modes of producing energy. This sounds simple enough, as many people know of different modes of producing energy. Yet when you go to get this you will find that the price tag on alternative energy is sky high. Solar panels for solar energy to charge a common battery cost over $80 on the retail market. In addition to this, alternative modes of energy can cause unexpected problems. The best example of this is the Chernobyl and Fire Island nuclear reactor meltdowns which made those places uninhabitable.
With this in mind, being environmentally friendly is also inconvenient for many. Do you really want to go home everyday and have to plug everything there back in and turn all of it back on? In addition to this, do you really want to be the only guy in the world driving a small tiny hybrid or electric car that isn't designed for style? Your friends would probably make fun of you right at their first glance of your car. Nobody wants to go through these things for even a single day. But of course, if Global Warming was real, then it would take much more than one day to solve the issue. It would probably take more than a century to solve Global Warming.
So I have to ask in conclusion: Are people really that passionate and concerned about the environment to take responsibility and put themselves in an inconvenienced state to help it? Honestly, I don't actually know the answer to this question. We have tried, throughout history to avoid major, important issues, such as the Constitution writers in dealing with slavery in America. This could clearly be a way that Global Warming, if proven, turns out, ignored until ultimate panic mode kicks in to solve it. This fear of mine is even further seen when people ask questions like
"Are cows the cause of Global Warming?"Though this may be possible, shouldn't we look at what we could be doing before we turn to animals whose only effects on the environment really are eating the grass and defecating on the ground? This is just another way people are trying to seem blameless and innocent instead of taking responsibility for what they might have done. If this trend of passing the blame continues, I cannot see our society being able to really do anything about an issue that would be as monumental as Global Warming.
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